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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Really, really enjoyed this series. How much? Well, I've been mostly listening to it as an audiobook, and I've been looking forward to going to work because it gives me 20 mins of uninterrupted listening time on the way. Loved it.
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
~Spoilers~
I was wondering how the entire situation with multiple versions of the empress fighting and Breq's quest for revenge was going to wrap up in just one book and the answer is - it did not! But I found the answer pretty satisfying anyway.
Throughout the last couple of books we've seen how Breq tries to address injustice when and where she can, while acknowledging that most of the harm has been done over multiple years of colonialism, genocide, and forced assimilation, and she isn't really capable of solving every problem. There's also been a lot of discussion on what it means to be an autonomous person. As an ancillary, Breq, like all the ships and stations that are run by AI, is considered to be property. Basically infrastructure. But her time as an independent being has taught her that not only is that incorrect, but that her fellow AIs might have their own opinions on how they want to live.
The climax of this book resolving itself around Breq and her allies giving autonomy back to the AIs and then declaring their little section of space to belong to them as Significant, Non-human beings and forcing Anaander to back off lest she run afoul of the Presger, who's alliance is on very shaky ground, was very clever and I really enjoyed it. There were many more AI characters in this one, from Breq and Tisarwat and Station, to all the new ships that enter the system and Sphene, their unexpected enemy turned ally. The decision to all call each other cousin is super cute honestly.
Also, confirmation that there IS more than two Anaander factions - at least three but who knows, maybe there's more. A being who had lived for three thousand years, occupying multiple cloned versions of herself, and secretly battling herself for at least a thousand of those years in multiple factions is a fascinating villain. She can't trust herself and no one can trust her and all versions of herself have ultimate authority because that's how she set up her empire. I wouldn't mind seeing more of this play out.
To my delight we got a lot more time with the Presger-human hybrid translators. I didn't get the sense that they understood individual existences or were particularly occupied with states of being (alive vs dead), so I was surprised when translator Zeiat said the translators had an invested interest in keeping the alliance intact so the translators would have a reason to be kept alive by the Presger. Still don't understand them, still fascinating.
I was wondering how the entire situation with multiple versions of the empress fighting and Breq's quest for revenge was going to wrap up in just one book and the answer is - it did not! But I found the answer pretty satisfying anyway.
Throughout the last couple of books we've seen how Breq tries to address injustice when and where she can, while acknowledging that most of the harm has been done over multiple years of colonialism, genocide, and forced assimilation, and she isn't really capable of solving every problem. There's also been a lot of discussion on what it means to be an autonomous person. As an ancillary, Breq, like all the ships and stations that are run by AI, is considered to be property. Basically infrastructure. But her time as an independent being has taught her that not only is that incorrect, but that her fellow AIs might have their own opinions on how they want to live.
The climax of this book resolving itself around Breq and her allies giving autonomy back to the AIs and then declaring their little section of space to belong to them as Significant, Non-human beings and forcing Anaander to back off lest she run afoul of the Presger, who's alliance is on very shaky ground, was very clever and I really enjoyed it. There were many more AI characters in this one, from Breq and Tisarwat and Station, to all the new ships that enter the system and Sphene, their unexpected enemy turned ally. The decision to all call each other cousin is super cute honestly.
Also, confirmation that there IS more than two Anaander factions - at least three but who knows, maybe there's more. A being who had lived for three thousand years, occupying multiple cloned versions of herself, and secretly battling herself for at least a thousand of those years in multiple factions is a fascinating villain. She can't trust herself and no one can trust her and all versions of herself have ultimate authority because that's how she set up her empire. I wouldn't mind seeing more of this play out.
To my delight we got a lot more time with the Presger-human hybrid translators. I didn't get the sense that they understood individual existences or were particularly occupied with states of being (alive vs dead), so I was surprised when translator Zeiat said the translators had an invested interest in keeping the alliance intact so the translators would have a reason to be kept alive by the Presger. Still don't understand them, still fascinating.
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I have a difficult time thinking of a character I respect more than Breq.
This final chapter made me laugh, cry, and hope for a better world.
This final chapter made me laugh, cry, and hope for a better world.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Absolutely stunning. I’m never going to read this book for the first time again, and I am grieving that.
the guiding tension of this trilogy - what makes Breq such a compelling protagonist - is the entanglement of intellect and emotion. early in the first book Breq reacts to someone who is surprised that she, a ship, has emotions:
Without feelings insignificant decisions become excruciating attempts to compare endless arrays of inconsequential things. It’s just easier to handle those with emotions.
this comes up again and again throughout the trilogy in subtle ways. the most prominent is Breq’s unreliability as a narrator, her intense and deeply felt emotion mostly obscured and only shining through when it is too much for her matter-of-fact narrative to contain. and yet it's enough to remember who she is, why she does what she does, even to pay attention to the moments when she doesn't know why she makes certain decisions (Seivarden, of course, being the most profound). by the end of this book I was close to tears several times because as magnetic and loyalty-inspiring as Breq is to her crew, she is that to me.
Leckie has done what feels impossible and sustained a character's intellect and depth of feeling across three books without losing even the tiniest narrative or personal details. I can't wait to read these again and cry about the soldiers singing, or Tisarwat’s lilac eyes.
Without feelings insignificant decisions become excruciating attempts to compare endless arrays of inconsequential things. It’s just easier to handle those with emotions.
this comes up again and again throughout the trilogy in subtle ways. the most prominent is Breq’s unreliability as a narrator, her intense and deeply felt emotion mostly obscured and only shining through when it is too much for her matter-of-fact narrative to contain. and yet it's enough to remember who she is, why she does what she does, even to pay attention to the moments when she doesn't know why she makes certain decisions (Seivarden, of course, being the most profound). by the end of this book I was close to tears several times because as magnetic and loyalty-inspiring as Breq is to her crew, she is that to me.
Leckie has done what feels impossible and sustained a character's intellect and depth of feeling across three books without losing even the tiniest narrative or personal details. I can't wait to read these again and cry about the soldiers singing, or Tisarwat’s lilac eyes.
Not as good as Ancillary Sword, but still a good book. I feel that it's a bit scattered and loose; a tighter focus would've helped. Also, I find the Translators a bit silly; their oddness comes off as goofy rather than eerie, like they're meant as comic relief. Probably they were, but it doesn't work for me.
I love this series and am so sad to have finished it. The first book is much better than the rest of the trilogy, but they were lovely to read on vacation. I really enjoy the dry narrative style and adore the Raadchi linguistic quirk that makes everyone she/her. I think it’s really nice how I don’t even notice that I’m reading every single character as female until I stop to think about it. I love space operas, so it’s not particularly surprising that I like these books so much, but I will say that I wish the scope was a bit wider. I wish we got more of the empire wide drama, even if Breq is confined to one station and planet.
Maybe more like 3.5, but I did enjoy it! Not as good as books 1 and 2, but a really nice ending to the trilogy. Sometimes there were things I couldn't follow and sometimes there was unnecessary repetition. Some pretty cool action sequences, some great characters/character interactions, and drama. I think it would have been 4 stars if I'd read it instead of listened to it--while the narrator was VERY good, some of the humor from the Translator I think would have hit harder in my head instead of listening to it. And she was quite a funny character (think Borne from Jeff Vandermeer). Overall: really fun, though not as memorable as Ancillary Justice.